Invitation to President Obama

A school in Norway invites the President.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.

The Nobel Committee will hand over 10 million Swedish crowns ($1.4 million) to President Obama on December 10 in Oslo for winning the historic award. The White House has confirmed to CBS News that President Obama will give all of the roughly $1.4 million that comes with the Nobel Peace Prize to charity. No word yet on which charity or charities will be the beneficiaries.

Students at Sandvika high school in Oslo Norway have started a project called “a letter to president Obama, the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009”. The school uses Web 2.0 to collaborate in this project. In this document written in EtherPad, they invite the President to visit the school and to hear what the students have to say about choosing a worthy charity for the award money. The U.S. Embassy writes in a e-mail to the school:

Thank you for inviting President Obama to visit Sandvika VGS. At this point, we are very unsure of the President’s schedule so we cannot make any commitments on his behalf. In all honesty, it will probably take some time before we can suggest any additions to the President’s schedule for Oslo.

It is, however, an interesting opportunity, so I will be happy to include it on a list of possible activities for the Obamas while they are here. The White House will choose what they are able to do, based on the rather tight schedule that faces them.